How was the event? How was the vendors? Anybody buy anything interesting?

Beautiful weather all three days. Great courses and great side games. Loved the pigeon ring. Attendance about like last year. Plenty of dealers and price ranges. Sold two, one privately and one to a dealer, bought a Parker CH. Only one walk in into the Fox booth 99% early A which I believe is unfired, not for sale. I heard Hausmann's has the Vintagers for two more years. Ernie made a bunch of improvements to host the event. Hard to gauge the amount of commerce going on.

I was there Friday afternoon. I didn't shoot, but the event was well worth the trip. The vendors brought out there quality guns. It was a very friendly casual crowd. There seemed to be activity between sellers and buyers. Hopefully the vendors feel it was worth there time and effort also.
Dave

As Craig says above, the weather was great. Also the catering on site was very good: enough (but not too much) choice, friendly cooks and quick service.
Most of the vendors I talked to said that they had sold enough to be happy, some very happy!
The venue is a bit remote but none the worse for that and very well appointed. I played with the RST crowd on Sunday on the 5 stand and had a blast!
I had a quiet show sales wise but lots of interest and the show is more about exposure for me rather than raw sales. Much of my stock stays on with Bob Nay of MacNab Fine Firearms between sales so I have no doubt the show will 'wash its face' in due course.

We spent three days, Thursday to Saturday. Weather was fine, a new course for small bores, 28,32, 410, was carved from the woods near the five stand. We shot all three courses, first two was similar to last June Northeast event and the flurry and ring were located down along the road. Some vendors from June, but Vintage Doubles, Heritage, and others from the Southern were there as well. It was a well run event and we will attend next year. Great crowd of shooters.

The lower parking area was able to handle all of the parking requirements on Thursday and Friday. Was there enough room there on Saturday for the Main Event as well, or was the overflow area needed?

More than enough. I did not see any cars in the lower fields other than those shooting the flurry and PR.

This was all in all a well orgainzed event. The only glitch, which had nothing to so with Huasmann or the Vintagers, centered on some participants who stole, removed name tags from the prepaid-rented golf carts, and used them. The vendor made good so all was well. we would never have guessed that there were such unscrupulous participants at such an event. Live and learn.

Agree with the compliments already given. I had a wonderful time. Lots of rare and wonderful guns on display - Toby Barclay's pair of 1890's Woodwards in very original condition cased with with manufacturer tools, bottles and other accessories was a showstopper.

Perhaps most impressive was the number of offerings for shooting - three different sporting clays courses, five stand, flurries, long bird, Mad Jack, pigeon ring and maybe even more that I can't recall. Obviously lots of work and attention went into that. Much appreciated.

The only glitch, which had nothing to so with Huasmann or the Vintagers, centered on some participants who stole, removed name tags from the prepaid-rented golf carts, and used them. The vendor made good so all was well. we would never have guessed that there were such unscrupulous participants at such an event. Live and learn. [/quote]


We have seen that boorish behavior at Hausmann’s before. I guess there’s no escaping that there are some in every ‘crowd’ and we shouldn’t expect that we, aficionados of fine guns, should be exempt from this malady - this pox on our tradition of sportsmanship.

A buddy of mine was there on Friday and had high praise for the entire event. The photos he showed me of dealers' tables had me drooling, particularly Steve Barnett's hammer gun display.

I wish I'd been able to go, even if just to look.

Certainly more and different vendors then normally show up for the NE SXS event held in June. Was nice to see those new vendors. Food was pretty darn good also. Absolutely great weather all 3 days.